Big Country Journal: Sowing the seeds of faith

Cotton farmer says he has to have faith in God

photos by Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News
Manuel Muñoz Jr. plants cotton Friday in a field along State Highway 208 in Mitchell County. Today is the insurance deadline for many area cotton farmers to get their crop in the ground. Drought and heat have wreaked havoc with this year's cotton crop.

Ronald W. Erdrich

Scrap cotton left over from the previous season sits in a field along State Highway 208 in Mitchell County. With drought gripping the region, this might be the only cotton the field sees this year.

Ronald W. Erdrich

MITCHELL COUNTY — Cotton farmers across the Big Country have sowed seed and faith in equal measure this season. With 2011 going down as one of the worst drought years in recent memory, many farmers in the area have no choice but to go through the motions.

Manuel Munoz Jr. farms several plots of land with his father and two brothers.

On Friday he and his brother Robert, like many other farmers, were working hard to get their cotton seed in the ground.

It wasn't that they were optimistic over this week's low chances for rainfall, but rather because today is the planting deadline for crop insurance.

"To me, it's kind of hard to plant when you know you don't have the moisture," he said.

Even if it did rain, Munoz said it probably wouldn't help.

"For us to get a rain right now, for cotton I think it's a little bit too late.

"We struggled earlier. We didn't put down herbicide down because the chemicals are so dry and the wind was blowing," he said.

"Now if it rains and we try to get cotton, it's going to be real hard to maintain it because we don't have the herbicides."

The family had better hopes earlier in the season. The field along State Highway 208 he was planting in late Friday was already covered in large, two-foot-high furrows.

They had plowed the 150 acres in the hopes it would be all ready when rains finally came and the soil would soak up the needed moisture.

Munoz said his father told him he had seen it this bad once before.

"He's 85 years old and still gets involved in it. He was talking to me the other day about how he hasn't seen many years like this since I guess in the '50s, when he was little. But now, this year, it kind of reminds him of it," he said.

Except for a few teasing spatters, the rain hasn't come.

The top of the soil mounded between the furrows in the field deceptively appear crusted from a brief shower.

Below the shell, however, the soil sifts through fingers like a fine, bone-dry powder.

In the face of that, it seems counterintuitive to plant anything, especially given the accepted weather outlook for the region — continued 100-degree heat and not a lot of moisture in sight.

"The thing is, we have to do it. Regardless of if it's dry or wet, we still have to plant," he said. "We waited to see if we would get some rain — and we never did."

By having the cotton crop in the ground by today, farmers can at least recover the cost of their investment. Every day after today can cost them one percent of their compensation.

Munoz followed the furrows through the field, the sweeps attached to his tractor slicing through the few weeds trying to poke through.

At the same time, cotton seed is dispensed automatically from containers into the ground.

Each seed is guaranteed to sprout.

He plants about five or six seeds per foot. He said they probably would end up using about 16 bags on the leased field that he and his brother were working Friday. At $350 per bag, it adds up.

There is a chance of rain in the forecast for the middle of the week, but even if it did come and the cotton sprouted, there is no certainty that it can sustain itself.

"It all depends. We don't have that much underground moisture," said Munoz. "If it rains an inch, that's not enough with these high winds. It's going to dry it up real fast. So this plant is going to take off and then all of a sudden it's going to stall back because the heat is going to get to it."

Even then, it might not bear fruit, the flowers and the bolls simply dropping away.

So what's the answer? Apparently, just keep on keepin' on.

"I'm ready to get through planting and see what happens. There's nothing you can do. You've just got to keep on going," Munoz said. "You've got to have a lot of faith in God and just try to see if you can make it through."